“However, Burrell admitted that some of the cast members may submit themselves in the ‘Lead’ categories in the future.

‘I wouldn’t be shocked in the future if we mixed it up a little bit,’ he said. ‘This is sort of once-in-a-lifetime, with all of us being nominated. The show’s nature is an ensemble, but I think it’s about understanding that this kind of situation probably doesn’t come around too often.

‘I don’t know how we’ll do it. Maybe we’ll draw straws or something. I wouldn’t be surprised if we actually did that! It’s hard to identify who’d be a lead.'”

I would take it a year at a time. As long as the show is hot and competitors are scarce, keep going in this direction. Hill Street Blues and Cheers ravaged this category for years. To be frank, how many other legit contenders were there this year that had a real shot? We all sort of knew all 4 Modern Family guys would get in. Year by year.

As for submissions, whatever the strategy, one thing is clear: the 4 episodes that will be submitted are one giant reel for all 4 actors. At some point you start to forget who’s tape was who’s. You can’t deny the other actors in the scenes. It’s just not possible. Either everyone submits their “own” best tape or Ed O’Neill, for example, picks his 4 best tapes and the whole group submits trying to get him a win. Either way, it’s the impact of all episodes that gets the award. Eric Stonestreet last year was excellent on his tape, as we was excellent in both Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Ty Burrell’s tapes as well. He got bonus marks for sure.

The guys should probably just all try going with their best work and see how it pans out. It would seem just too complicated for them to be either consciously trying to make their costars look better or worse. I’ll have to think about submission choices a little, though.

In my mind, the leads of the show are Ed O’Neill and Julie Bowen, and maybe maybe Jesse Tyler Ferguson, probably because the play the less zany person in all three relationships, and they mostly seem to be dealing with things happening to them because of the more extreme people around them. I’d have no problem with some of them moving categories.

I’m really hoping it’s Ty Burrell’s year. Depending on the submissions, it’s hard to imagine him not being the standout. Jay is often understated, and doesn’t tend to have as many LOL-scenes as the others. Cam and Mitchell are usually in the same scenes, and IMO, tended to be a little one-note this year. Burrell probably gave the loudest performance of these guys, and manages to steal the show each week. Chances are, he’s great on everyone’s tape.

A win for any of these guys is deserved though. Would love for it to be someone other than Stonestreet, strictly because he’s already got one.

I genuinely think that MF has a good relationship among its cast members that a win for any member is a win for the whole ensemble as well. That’s why the best thing to do is submit the best episode for each of them. I don’t expect they’ll be bitter if a co-star wins especially since it’s also a win for the show.

Whatever they do, they need to make sure none of them submits the same episode. The ensemble nature of the show means that all the actors will be featured in all four episode submissions, meaning each will have the benefit of 2 hours worth of submissions, and it’ll be tough for Chris Colfer to beat that, especially considering how much Emmy’s affection for “Glee” softened in its second year.